For a league that is allegedly trying to rid itself of staged fights and other egregious examples of unnecessary violence, the NHL has an odd way of comporting itself.

Witness the fight picked by commissioner Gary Bettman Monday, when he demanded Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi get on side with a bloated plan for a new $890 million arena for the hometown Flames.

“If this project is going to happen, the mayor needs to embrace it, the city needs to embrace it … If he’s not prepared to embrace it, then the people will have to deal with that,” Bettman declared at an address to the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.

This project was announced without all of the homework being done. It’s not even half-baked. It’s not even in the oven yet.

“I’m having trouble understanding why there hasn’t been further progress on CalgaryNEXT,” he said. “No matter what anyone thinks of the proposed CalgaryNEXT project or the cost of the project, the cost is never going to be lower than it is today.”

Ooooh, jeepers. As they used to say on SCTV, “That’s scary, eh kids?”

Bettman has a track record for throwing his weight around with important people. He pretty much banished Blackberry co-founder Jim Balsillie, who offered to save the failing Phoenix Coyotes and move them to Hamilton, because Balsillie didn’t follow proper etiquette in making his offer. While ignoring a brand-new $400 million arena in Quebec, built in hopes of attracting an NHL franchise, Bettman has let rival suitors in Las Vegas know they’ll have his blessing at the earliest opportunity.

Fred Thornhill/Reuters

And why shouldn’t he look on minor civic politicians with Napoleonic disdain? He’s used to getting his way. The city of Edmonton spent years agonizing over how it could pay for a new $480 million downtown arena, eventually agreeing to a big dose of public funding and special tax levies to save billionaire Oilers owner Daryl Katz having to pay for it himself.

It’s just possible Nenshi is made of sterner stuff, however. Not since Joey Kocur versus Bob Probert has an NHL fight held out so much promise of bruising and bloodshed. Responding to Bettman’s diktat, Nenshi employed a heavy dose of sarcasm:

“I know that Calgarians require very wealthy people from New York to come and tell us what we need to do in our community because they understand vibrancy better than we do,” he said. “Perhaps in other cities that he has come to, the city councils have just written cheques based on back-of-a-napkin proposals without any consultation to the public or without any analysis. That’s not how we operate here.”

Perhaps the commissioner hasn’t noticed, but Alberta is not the walking, talking bag of money it once was. Oil prices are lower than Patrick Kaleta’s ethics. Nenshi’s city is struggling with high unemployment, empty office buildings, collapsing home prices and a provincial government overseeing a $6 billion deficit. Waving a magic wand and having Big Oil hand over a cheque for a few hundred million isn’t going to happen.

Courtesy Calgary Flames/Calgary Herald

The plan, unveiled in August by Ken King, president of the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corp., would include a new NHL arena, new CFL stadium and a public fieldhouse. The owners would kick in just $200 million; the remaining $690 million would be raised through a $250-million ticket tax, another $200 million from the city for the public field house, and $240 million from a community revitalization levy. The cost, however, doesn’t include any associated infrastructure expenses or the expense of remediating an estimated two million litres of toxic creosote left in the ground by a former wood preserving plant on the site . One councillor estimated the final tab could approach $1.5 billion.

Nenshi dismissed the plan as a pipe dream.

“This project was announced, frankly, without all of the homework being done,” he said at the time. “It’s not even half-baked. It’s not even in the oven yet. This is a matter of stirring the batter and putting it in the oven.”

Before the city can begin to assess the plan, “Calgarians deserve to be able to really know that their council has gone through this in a very methodical, very transparent and very open way.”

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